The Legend of Undeath
Whispers and hints from beyond the age of myth have woven the threads of this story. This story is neither true nor false as it simply is, for it concerns how Undeath came to be part of the world, despite it being in opposition to the Will of Heaven.
At the Dawn of the Gods, in the Bureau of Souls there was a diligent gatekeeper named either Tenebrous or Orcus. This gatekeeper was responsible for ensuring mortal souls did not linger in the many mortal realms and the dead did not cross into the realms of the mortals. This was the Will of Heaven. This duty was endless and was complicated by mortals using various arcane methods to animate the bodies, or question the dead, using knowledge (spells) that in many cases had been provided to the mortals from the gods themselves. Orcus came to feel he was overworked, undervalued, and his work was continually being sabotaged to make him look bad to his supervisors. Eventually Orcus’s dissatisfaction grew and grew until he rebelled against Heaven. Orcus was cast out of Heaven into Hell.
In the age of god’s realms there was a golden kingdom ruled by a great platinum dragon, Bahamut. Bahamut had a devoted disciple, a human mage named Vecna. Vecna gained much arcane knowledge from Bahamut and showed a great aptitude and appetite for learning. After many years of study, Vecna said to his teacher, “Let me go forth, with the knowledge you have given me, to the benighted lands and I will bring them your teachings of compassion and justice.” At first Bahamut forbade his pupil to leave, but Vecna persisted and Bahamut saw Vecna would eventually go, with or without Bahamut’s blessing, so he sent his pupil out into the benighted lands to gather the folk and build kingdoms of peace and stability.
Vecna did build a great kingdom in the benighted lands, but he learned, ruling a troublesome people in a troublesome land, justly, wisely, with compassion and justice for all is a trying task. While he was building and ruling, he still sought out knowledge, and he found teachers in both celestial and infernal places, though initially he showed more caution with those infernal sources. As the years rolled past and extracted their toll, in time Vecna found himself wanting more time to finish his projects and to train his successor, Kas, in the subtle arts of ruling a troublesome people. This is when he encountered the voice of Orcus.
Orcus hid his rage and gave council to Vecna, and Vecna found this council good and came to rely more and more upon the ideas and words of Orcus in dealing with the affairs of his realm. Vecna was starting to obsess more on seeking out knowledge of how to defeat time and paid less attention to those lives around him. Orcus was patient and careful and each tiny step at a time was able to completely corrupt Vecna.
The day came when Vecna felt his death approaching and in fear sought out Orcus, who had prepared for this day. Orcus taught Vecna an utterly blasphemous ritual, which would allow Vecna to side-step the laws of heaven and remain in command of his mortal body while his spirit would be trapped/ shielded in the mortal realm. The primary elements of this ritual are the arcane invocations, the potion of prolonged death, the phylactery, and the sacrifices of sentient humanoids. Other mortals would have their spirits sacrificed to Orcus in order to allow Orcus to use his infernal powers to shift Vecna’s spirit into the phylactery.
The phylactery is a durable arcane object which the lich must regularly feed the spirits of sentient creatures (such as adventurers).
Other tales tell of the rise of Orcus, and the long dominion of Vecna the Lich, but this is the story of the first, and possibly the greatest, of the greater undead, Vecna.
At the Dawn of the Gods, in the Bureau of Souls there was a diligent gatekeeper named either Tenebrous or Orcus. This gatekeeper was responsible for ensuring mortal souls did not linger in the many mortal realms and the dead did not cross into the realms of the mortals. This was the Will of Heaven. This duty was endless and was complicated by mortals using various arcane methods to animate the bodies, or question the dead, using knowledge (spells) that in many cases had been provided to the mortals from the gods themselves. Orcus came to feel he was overworked, undervalued, and his work was continually being sabotaged to make him look bad to his supervisors. Eventually Orcus’s dissatisfaction grew and grew until he rebelled against Heaven. Orcus was cast out of Heaven into Hell.
In the age of god’s realms there was a golden kingdom ruled by a great platinum dragon, Bahamut. Bahamut had a devoted disciple, a human mage named Vecna. Vecna gained much arcane knowledge from Bahamut and showed a great aptitude and appetite for learning. After many years of study, Vecna said to his teacher, “Let me go forth, with the knowledge you have given me, to the benighted lands and I will bring them your teachings of compassion and justice.” At first Bahamut forbade his pupil to leave, but Vecna persisted and Bahamut saw Vecna would eventually go, with or without Bahamut’s blessing, so he sent his pupil out into the benighted lands to gather the folk and build kingdoms of peace and stability.
Vecna did build a great kingdom in the benighted lands, but he learned, ruling a troublesome people in a troublesome land, justly, wisely, with compassion and justice for all is a trying task. While he was building and ruling, he still sought out knowledge, and he found teachers in both celestial and infernal places, though initially he showed more caution with those infernal sources. As the years rolled past and extracted their toll, in time Vecna found himself wanting more time to finish his projects and to train his successor, Kas, in the subtle arts of ruling a troublesome people. This is when he encountered the voice of Orcus.
Orcus hid his rage and gave council to Vecna, and Vecna found this council good and came to rely more and more upon the ideas and words of Orcus in dealing with the affairs of his realm. Vecna was starting to obsess more on seeking out knowledge of how to defeat time and paid less attention to those lives around him. Orcus was patient and careful and each tiny step at a time was able to completely corrupt Vecna.
The day came when Vecna felt his death approaching and in fear sought out Orcus, who had prepared for this day. Orcus taught Vecna an utterly blasphemous ritual, which would allow Vecna to side-step the laws of heaven and remain in command of his mortal body while his spirit would be trapped/ shielded in the mortal realm. The primary elements of this ritual are the arcane invocations, the potion of prolonged death, the phylactery, and the sacrifices of sentient humanoids. Other mortals would have their spirits sacrificed to Orcus in order to allow Orcus to use his infernal powers to shift Vecna’s spirit into the phylactery.
The phylactery is a durable arcane object which the lich must regularly feed the spirits of sentient creatures (such as adventurers).
Other tales tell of the rise of Orcus, and the long dominion of Vecna the Lich, but this is the story of the first, and possibly the greatest, of the greater undead, Vecna.
Date of Setting
The ages of the god's realms
Comments